Although it’s hard to believe when you live in Miami, summer is over. Those three short months brought about a huge explosion of awesomeness. This was the summer of new experiences, learning processes, new friendships, and some oh, crap moments.

When I decided to publish Perfectly Imperfect, I thought to myself, Cool. I’m a published author with a book I love. Then one morning I woke up and thought, Damn, I’m a published author, and people are buying my book! If you’ve read my previous post about how Perfectly Imperfect came to be, then you’ll know that I did it to fulfill a dream I’ve had for years but never thought it would be more than that. I was so wrong.

So what have a learned through this journey? First of all, that the author world is a universe on it’s own. Holy smokes is there a lot to learn.

Teasers… What, you want to me to tease you? I hope you’re a 6 foot tall, alpha book boyfriend if you want me to tease you like that. Choosing the perfect image, the perfect excerpt that will draw people in, fonts, colors… boy, oh boy, it could give you a migraine, but when you’re done and you share it with the world, the feedback, the likes, the comments, make it all worthwhile.

They serve a purpose of getting your book out there, pulling in readers, making yourself known before publishing, and after. People want to be teased. They want to read something that will make them think, “Ooh, la, la..” and “Yes! I totally relate.” They want you to give them a reason to buy your book. They also want to interact with you, know more about your writing, and these small teasers allow that.

Then we have takeovers… They want me to takeover the world? Sure, no pressure. There are amazing bloggers I have met who have been extremely supportive, especially to a small indie author starting off. So what do they have to do with takeovers? They invite the authors into their page to interact with their followers. They help you become more known in this challenging world. They give you the freedom to introduce yourself, talk about your books, upcoming releases, hot men; whatever makes you happy (always respectfully).

I love meeting new people, and this is a great way to interact and get to know each other. Social media and technology are a great way to meet people all over the world. I’ve had people coming to takeovers from Australia, the UK, even Finland and Asia. It’s awesome to interact with these people and share about myself and my writing. The same way there are events to raise awareness on a specify subject. It’s amazing to also see authors, bloggers, and readers come together as a team to support each other and topics dear to their heart.

I learned what pimping was.. and no, I was not a hooker for getting pimped, I welcomed it with open arms. Actually, you want to be pimped in this world. And well, I always love to try new things. Oh, the author world has interesting vocabulary to describe their promoting tools. Sharing teasers and book information on blog posts and pages is what pimping is all about. I guess it’s not as exciting as you thought.

There are Street Teams; and no, they aren’t street, but they can be pretty gangster in supporting authors.

This isn’t an easy career. There is ugly, bad talk, betrayal, put downs, but there is also so much good. For me, part of being an indie author is supporting each other. Celebrating when someone succeeds. Having the freedom to write what I like and publish when I want. I love to write. Writing has always been my escape, my happy place, and being able to write stories to share publicly now has been amazing for me.

I’ve learned about friendships. I’ve met so many amazing people through this journey who have supported and motivated me from the beginning. People who have taken me in and guided me when I was lost on how to proceed. I have a full-time job, but knowing I get to come home and “hang out” with these people makes it so much better. We support, guide, motivate, and encourage.

So what I’ve learned the most this summer is that, although we can succeed on our own if we drive to, no man is an island. We are a team. We are all here for the same purpose. To write beautiful stories and share with with readers who love to fall in love with books. Readers want books to read- the more, the merrier. “We should only compete with ourselves to become better than we were yesterday.” That’s the truth right there! Real people empower each other, and push for you to be better than you were yesterday with kindness.